Abstract
To clarify the fuel gasification characteristics in a primary combustion chamber of a staged combustion hybrid rocket, the effect of fuel grain size on the regression rate of a grain was investigated experimentally. The grain size distribution in the combustion region achieved a steady state in 30 seconds burning duration. Examining fuel size distributions and fuel consumption rate at steady states, we obtained a history of fuel size and the regression rate of a grain in the combustion region. Regression rate increases with decreasing grain size. With a constant oxidizer flow rate, the regression rate is a function of grain size and independent to the initial grain size. After an initial transient the grain size decreases following the classical d-square law in droplet combustion: The square of the grain size decreases linearly with time. Although why the regression history of a grain in the combustion region follows the d-square law is not clear, this result is useful to estimate the fuel gasification rate of a staged combustion hybrid rocket.
